This is Not a Morning Routine for the Successful

There are cycles of time where I become obsessed with the morning routines of successful artists, millionaire entrepreneurs and favorite writers.  If I can mimic their schedules, maybe I too can achieve my dreams.

I’ve set my alarm for the early hours to try all the successful billionaire people routines like:

• Running and exercise at sunrise
• Meditation practices before coffee
• Stream of conscious journaling with coffee
• Tackling the “big hitter” items first thing in the day before I’m fully out of R.E.M. sleep

Despite the initial enthusiasm for trying a new approach, I tend to lose heart within the first few days. It’s not that I don’t want to try, it’s that I can’t seem to focus on a project first thing in the day. We know what happens when we try to take off and sprint without a proper warm up. Something goes wrong, a muscle snaps in half, people cry. I cry.

It’s not that I don’t like to get up early in the morning. It’s that I’m not a productive morning person.

I suppose any habit or routine must feel authentic if it’s going to be effective.

For me, that morning ritual is staring out a sliver of window pane blurred with rain, or sipping coffee with a detached focus on the rolling hills peaking over the rooftops. Maybe this is what people mean when they encourage a personal meditation practice.

Why frantically swim to the surface of wakeful consciousness when I can float there? I’ve always been drawn to the stillness of a morning, staring out windows, watching the steam from my coffee rise and disappear. I might not be winning any awards with this morning pace, but I’m a hell of a lot happier.